Updated 9:35 pm, Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The three-member commission did not reject the application outright, but told the Brazos River Authority that it must submit a detailed plan for the water within 10 months. If the river authority fails to meet the deadline, the permit application would be denied.

TCEQ Chairman Bryan Shaw urged the river authority to address the concerns with the permit application, which requested rights to divert about 1 million acre-feet of water from the Brazos for future sale to cities, industry and others.

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The BRA wanted a two-step process, in which the TCEQ first would grant the water rights and later approve the diversion. The authority asserts that it cannot develop a management plan until it knows how much water it can divert.

Bech Bruun, BRA's manager of government relations, said the water supplier is pleased that its permit was not denied and will move forward under the commission's "expeditious timeline."

The BRA has rights to about 700,000 acre-feet of water, but has sold out its supply to cities and industry. One acre-foot, equal to about 326,000 gallons, is enough to serve two typical Texas families for a year.

Critics, including landowners, farmers, environmentalists and the Dow Chemical Co., which runs a giant complex near the mouth of the Brazos, told the TCEQ it is impossible to gauge the availability of water or the potential impacts on rights holders, water quality, fish and wildlife habitat without knowing the location of diversion points.

Complex application

Myron Hess, a Texas attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, said approval of the permit, as proposed, would "stand regulatory procedure on its head. Meaningful analysis would only come after the appropriation."

Richard Lowerre, an attorney representing the Friends of the Brazos, a landowners group, said the BRA "just overreached. They asked for water that is not there and a process that is not available."

Before Wednesday, two state administrative law judges had recommended that the TCEQ deny or order revisions to the permit application, which they described as the most complex they have seen.

Still, they found that the permit would be in the public interest. Texas' 50-year water plan includes the BRA's proposal as a key strategy for meeting future demand.